This invention relates to a bus bar stab insulator and more particularly to a shroud which cooperates with the stab insulator to further insulate the bus bar stabs.
Electrical apparatus, such as a motor control center, often has a draw-out type protective device which can be racked-in and racked-out of the control center enclosure to facilitate maintenance, testing and installation. The draw-out protective device, which may be a fusible disconnect switch or a circuit breaker, is typically mounted on a carriage assembly which can be racked-out and put racked-in the control center housing. This requires the making and breaking of contact between the protective device mechanism itself and current carrying conductors in the enclosure. A stab assembly is used to make the connection between the draw-out protective device and the bus bars.
While insulated housings have been devised for bus bar stab assemblies, there is still room for improvement. For example, typical stab assemblies usually have fingers for contacting the bus bars. These fingers normaly protrude from the stab insulator housing. It is desirable to have resilient fingers which further exposes the fingers which must remain free of interference to remain resilient. When the fingers are exposed, they collect dust and may come in contact with other objects. It will be appreciated that it would be highly desirable to provide a housing for the fingers which would protect them from dust and debris, yet, not interfere with their resilience.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shroud which cooperates with the housing to insulate the stab assembly.
Another object is to provide a shroud which protects the stab fingers from debris while not interfering with their operation.
Another operation is to provide a shroud which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.